Background and Leadership of Operation United Shield
The political situation in Somalia deteriorated throughout 1993 and 1994, until it was determined that UN peacekeeping forces were in unacceptable jeopardy. On 10 January 1995 the Pentagon announced that 4,000 US CENTCOM personnel (including 2,600 U.S. Marines) would be deployed to Somalia for Operation United Shield to assist in the final withdrawal of United Nations peacekeeping troops from Somalia. At that time, the peacekeeping force remaining in Somalia consisted of a total of approximately 2,500 troops from Pakistan and Bangladesh. The decision came in response to a request from the U.N. for American protection of its peacekeeping forces serving in the war-torn African nation. The United Nations Security Council established 31 March 1995 as the deadline for the departure of all its forces participating in U.N. operations in Somalia.
LtGen Anthony Zinni (Commanding General, I Marine Expeditionary Force) was given command of the operation, which was to ensure the safe execution of an amphibious withdrawal. General Zinni, who served as Director for Operations for UNITAF during Operation Restore Hope in 1992-1993, knew most of the top Somali leaders at the time of Operation United Shield.
The commanders utilized a 4,000 man air-ground task force to cover the withdrawal and prevent further casualties, while a seaborne coalition of American, Italian, Pakistani, French, British, and Malaysian naval vessels waited just off the coast of Mogadishu to accept the withdrawing forces.
Read more about this topic: Operation United Shield
Famous quotes containing the words background and, background, leadership, operation, united and/or shield:
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“During the first World War women in the United States had a chance to try their capacities in wider fields of executive leadership in industry. Must we always wait for war to give us opportunity? And must the pendulum always swing back in the busy world of work and workers during times of peace?”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“In the United States all business not transacted over the telephone is accomplished in conjunction with alcohol or food, often under conditions of advanced intoxication. This is a fact of the utmost importance for the visitor of limited funds ... for it means that the most expensive restaurants are, with rare exceptions, the worst.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“The lichen on the rocks is a rude and simple shield which beginning and imperfect Nature suspended there. Still hangs her wrinkled trophy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)